Ward - Irish Surname Origin & Meaning
Irish form: Mac an Bhaird
Meaning: “son of the bard”
Traditional stronghold: Galway, Donegal
Hereditary poets to the O’Donnells and O’Kellys.
Pronunciation: WARD; Irish Mac an Bhaird: mok un WAWRDJ
History of the Ward name
Irish Wards are Mac an Bhaird, 'son of the bard', and the name marks two celebrated hereditary poet families. One served the O'Donnells of Tirconnell from lands at Lettermacaward in Donegal; the other served the O'Kellys of Uí Maine in Galway. Both produced generations of professional poets trained in the bardic schools, composing praise poetry, elegy and political verse for their patrons until the Gaelic order collapsed in the 17th century. Eoghan Ruadh Mac an Bhaird accompanied the O'Donnells into exile after the Flight of the Earls, while Aodh Mac an Bhaird helped found the Irish Franciscan college at Louvain, a powerhouse of Irish scholarship abroad. English Wards, from an Old English word for watchman, also settled in Ireland, but Donegal and Galway Wards are generally of bardic stock.
Variants: Mac an Bhaird · MacAward · MacWard
Famous bearers of the name
- Eoghan Ruadh Mac an Bhaird - Poet to the O'Donnells whose lament for the exiled earls is a landmark of Irish verse.
- Hugh Ward - Aodh Mac an Bhaird, Franciscan scholar at Louvain who launched the great project of collecting the lives of Irish saints.
- Mary Ward - Offaly-born microscopist and science writer, remembered too as the first recorded motor-vehicle fatality, in 1869.
Related names from the same part of Ireland: Kelly · Gallagher · Lynch · Connolly · Burke · Boyle · Doherty · Sweeney